


Not Dedicated To Donna Moss

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Post Bartlett Administration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-24
Updated: 2006-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:05:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: The Introduction to Josh's first book.





	Not Dedicated To Donna Moss

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

This book is not dedicated to Donna Moss.

Years ago, when John Hoynes published his autobiography, Donna Moss came into my office with a copy of the book and informed me that I had been mentioned 39 times. At the time she was not my wife, we hadn’t even kissed, but she was my assistant and my best friend. She had seemed almost impressed. I was an important man. My name was listed in the index of a major best seller and under my name there were subheadings.

And so when I got around to finishing this book I went through and counted the number of times my wife’s name was mentioned. Keeping in mind that she only appears in the last 200 pages of this book, keeping in mind that she was not senior staff at the White House, keeping in mind she was not my girlfriend, my wife, or the mother of my children until after election day 2006, Donna Moss’s name appears 58 times and that’s only because I cut the stories about her that I liked and she doesn’t. I was able to leave in a great one about her saving social security because it fit with the book and was relevant, you can read about it on page 748, but even now when she reads that part she blushes and says it shouldn’t be part of the story. But it is, and she is.

Donna Moss is mentioned so many times not because she is my wife, or the mother of my children, or even because she is now a forceful political operative in her own right. She is mentioned so many times because she had an impact of social, economic and foreign policy. She is mentioned because people other than myself sought her guidance and her wisdom. Some of those people include Toby Zeigler, C.J. Cregg, Sam Seaborn, President and Mrs. Bartlet and, of course, Leo McGarry.

Several years ago when the publisher of this book came to me and asked me to write my autobiography it was Donna Moss who kept my ego in check. It was Donna Moss who suggested that I was too young for an autobiography. It was Donna Moss who suggested this counterproposal instead. It was Donna Moss who helped me organize my thoughts, who assisted in the research (even though I'm sitting at home and she has a full time job on top of being a mother). But this book is not dedicated to Donna Moss. 

Instead I dedicate this book to the book’s subject. A man who was my mentor, my savior, my friend and in many ways, my father. I only wish that Leo McGarry could have seen the future he helped create.

By the way, Donna Moss's name had now appeared ten more times. I couldn’t have done it without her.

Josh Lyman  
Washington, D.C.  
May 2018


End file.
